Thomas Hepburn
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
miner
Miner
A miner is a person whose work or business is to extract ore or minerals from the earth. Mining is one of the most dangerous trades in the world. In some countries miners lack social guarantees and in case of injury may be left to cope without assistance....
and trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
leader.
Background
Hepburn was born in Pelton, County Durham. He began employment as a coalCoal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
miner
Miner
A miner is a person whose work or business is to extract ore or minerals from the earth. Mining is one of the most dangerous trades in the world. In some countries miners lack social guarantees and in case of injury may be left to cope without assistance....
as a child, aged just 8 years old at Fatfield
Fatfield
Fatfield is a village in Tyne and Wear, located in the City of Sunderland metropolitan borough, England. It formed part of the Washington new town....
Colliery. Despite economic circumstance forcing his employment in childhood, as was common for working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
children at the time, he was an intelligent child, able to read the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
from an early age, remaining interested in education all his life.
Thomas Hepburn Community school in felling was built and named after Thomas Hepburn himself.
Industrial Action
He moved to JarrowJarrow
Jarrow is a town in Tyne and Wear, England, located on the River Tyne, with a population of 27,526. From the middle of the 19th century until 1935, Jarrow was a centre for shipbuilding, and was the starting point of the Jarrow March against unemployment in 1936.-Foundation:The Angles re-occupied...
Colliery, and then Hetton
Hetton
Hetton is a small dales village and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England, situated 6 miles north of Skipton.Nearby places include Rylstone, Cracoe, Flasby, Threapland and Winterburn. It also houses Hetton Amateur Swimming Club, who are based at the Hetton Sports Centre....
Colliery before forming the Northern Union of Pitmen around 1830/31, which was colloquially known as Hepburn's Union. Some of the first industrial action undertaken by this union, under Hepburn's guidance was to go on strike to seek improved conditions. In this aim the strike was largely successful, with working hours being reduced from around 18 hours a day to a 12 hour shift, and ensuring that payment for labour was always in money, ending the system of "Tommy Shops" whereby the miners had to
Truck system
A truck system is an arrangement in which employees are paid in commodities or some currency substitute , rather than with standard money. This limits employees' ability to choose how to spend their earnings—generally to the benefit of the employer...
purchase provisions from a shop either owned or preferred by the colliery owner, with wages being confiscated to pay off the shop owner before the employee could directly receive them.
Conflict
Hepburn then quickly had to involve his unionTrade unions in the United Kingdom
Trade unions in the United Kingdom were first decriminalised under the recommendation of a Royal Commission in 1867, which agreed that the establishment of the organisations was to the advantage of both employers and employees...
in further industrial action in 1832 to ensure that unionised workers were given employment as pit owners threatened to cease employment of them. This strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
was more bitter than the previous one, and despite Hepburn's best efforts to ensure that all action was peaceful, violence broke out on a number of occasions, such as at Friar's Goose, where unionised lead miners attacked non-unionised miners from Cumberland
Cumberland
Cumberland is a historic county of North West England, on the border with Scotland, from the 12th century until 1974. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974 and now forms part of Cumbria....
who had been brought in to replace them. In another action a South Shields
South Shields
South Shields is a coastal town in Tyne and Wear, England, located at the mouth of the River Tyne to Tyne Dock, and about downstream from Newcastle upon Tyne...
magistrate, Nicholas Fairless was beaten so badly by a striking miner that he died from his wounds, and elsewhere a miner was shot by a police constable dring a disorder.
This strike withered and the union crumbled as the miners realised the necessity of employment and a wage to live was greater than the principle of trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
solidarity. The strike leaders were scapegoated by the authorities, and Thomas Hepburn became unable to secure employment as a miner thereafter, being banned from the coalfield.
Thereafter he attempted to sell tea at the mines to make a living, but in this venture he was largely unsuccessful.
Destitute, he was eventually re-employed at a colliery, at Felling, on the grounds that he did not get involved in trade union activity. He did not re-engage in any union activity but remained active in radical political circles. During 1838-39 he worked on behalf of the Chartists. He continued to work at Felling until retiring due to ill health in 1859.
Death
He continued to live in the area until the last few months of his life, when he moved to live with his son-in-law in Newcastle. He died on December 9, 1864 aged 69, after a career spanning 56 years and a retirement of just five years.Buried at Heworth Churchyard, there stands a headstone with a testimony to his trade union activity. The Thomas Hepburn Community School
Thomas Hepburn Community School
Thomas Hepburn Community School is a community secondary school and Science College located in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. The school serves about 700 pupils aged 11–16.-History:...
in Felling is named in his honour.